For various purposes it is desirable or necessary to move elongated workpieces on a loop path that passes through a work or processing station in a longitudinal direction, without rotating the workpiece 180.degree. at each end of the loop. For example, where dry printing is to be applied to an elongated workpiece by a roll-on process, straight line travel is necessary while the printing head is transferring the print; smearing or improper print transfer would arise if the workpiece moved on a curved path past the head. Such straight line travel is easily accomplished for short workpieces: they can be carried on an endless conveyor and can turn with the conveyor as it circles around. However, with elongated workpieces (particularly those having a length of about two feet or more) it becomes impractical to turn such a long workpiece around an end radius. The space required for the swing at the ends is undesirably great.
This invention is directed to a conveyor for moving an elongated workpiece around an endless loop path of travel that includes main longitudinal runs, by moving it laterally (transversely to its length) at the ends of the main runs, and thereby avoiding the problem of excessive end swing. The width of the conveyor is thereby enabled to be substantially reduced.